Frozen Waters
by Narlth
Summary: Hypothermia's pretty easy to catch when you fall though the ice. Set between 4x02 and 4x03.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Frozen Waters

Category: BBC Merlin - Canon, Gen.

Characters/Pairings: Merlin, Arthur, The Knights.

Rating/Warnings: T

Summary: Hypothermia's pretty easy to catch when you fall though the ice.

N/A: This has been sitting half completed on my computer for a very, very long time and I have finally got around to working on it again :D Chapter lengths will vary, as I just write until I reach a good point to stop. Anyway on with the fic!

MM

Sunlight filtered in though the small window, illuminating the mostly shadow concealed figure curled tightly under several miss matched blankets. The faint yet growing sound of movement came from behind the room's single door.

"Merlin!" Gaius' voice floated though the darkness, whilst the warlock in question curled up tighter and shuffled deeper under the blankets, so that only the top of his head covered in messy black hair was visible. "Merlin!" Gaius said again, his voice rising slightly, before he pushed open the door to Merlin's room flooding it with light. "You better get up, or you'll be late /again/"

"But Gaius it's cold." Merlin mumbled, rolling over so as to face Gaius as he spoke his blue eyes half lidded with sleep. Sighing audibly Gaius tugged sharply on Merlin's blankets exposing him to the cold, sharp winter air.

"Gaius!" Merlin cried out, instinctively curling in on himself, and reaching out with his left hand to try and restore the blankets back to their original position.

"Well if you had gotten up on your own, I wouldn't have had to do that." Gaius responded, whilst folding the blankets up, out of his wards reach. "Now get up."

Sighing in defeat Merlin uncurled himself, blinking rapidly so as to clear the haze of sleep from his eyes. Standing from his bed Merlin picked up his black trousers, his blue top, red scarf and brown jacket, before hastily pulling them on. Frowning Merlin scanned the room spotting one of his boots lying discarded next to the door, which he quickly put on whilst still searching for his other one. Finally noticing it poking out from under a shirt, which lay just under his bed. Signing Merlin picked it up leaving the shirt where it was, and shoving the boot on, before he quickly hurried out into the main room.

Gaius barely glanced up from this work as Merlin jogged down the steps, grabbing a slice of bread from the selection on the table and sticking it straight in his mouth.

"See you later." Merlin called around the bread, whilst exiting though the simple wooden door of Gaius' quarters.

MM

Arriving at Arthur's room, Merlin balanced a tray of food in one hand as he pushed the door open with the other revealing the Prince's large shadow filled room. Stepping inside Merlin kicked the door closed letting it bang loudly into its frame, drawing a slight moan from Arthur at the sound.

"Morning!" Merlin cry cheerily, throwing open the nearest set of curtains, and grinning broadly as Arthur tried to bury himself deeper into his bed, emitting another moan as he did so.

"Come on! I didn't get to have a lie in, so why should you?" Merlin continued, whilst kneeling to stoke the all but burnt out fire, he let his magic flow out of him sparking onto the wood and letting the fire grow.

Across the room Arthur rolled over twisting his sheets around his legs in the process. "It's not your job to lazy around _Mer_lin." Arthur said sitting up, shivering as his blankets slide off of his shoulders exposing them to the still fairly chilled air of the room. "Gods it's cold, hurry up and get me some warm clothes."

"Of course, _sire_" Merlin replied, hurrying over to the cupboard and grabbing a red shirt, brown trousers and one of Arthur's long, thick brown trench coat, whilst Arthur finally climbed out of his bed and stepped around his dressing screen.

"Oh, Merlin I need you to prepare supplies for a two day hunt." Arthur called, reaching around for his clothing. Signing Merlin replied, as he tugged his own jacket tighter about himself.

"In this Weather? It's bloody freezing."

"Yes well it's the first clear day we've had in a while so I want to make use of it." Was Arthur's dismissive reply, as he stepped out from behind the screen, as made his way over to the table to eat his breakfast.

"I'll just go sort everything out then shall I." Merlin said, not expecting a reply and he took a step backwards toward the door, before he span around on his heels and left the room.

MM

Merlin stumbled down the stairs as he lugged not only his own small bag but Arthur's, /in his opinion unnecessarily huge bag/, along with many varying weapons. On his way to collect the supplies Merlin had run back to his room and picked up his second jacket, which he quickly pulled on, on top of the one, he was already wearing an action which had however only served to make the warlock even later.

Hurrying down the corridor Merlin reached the exit leading into the snow dusted court yard Merlin spotted Arthur along with Gwaine, Elyan, Leon and Percival all mounted up on their respective horses, deep red cloaks flowing gracefully in the slight breeze, and hiding the many layers each of them wore to keep out the cold.

"Ah! There you are _Mer_lin , hurry up I would prefer to get something done before night fall." Arthur said noticing the approach of his manservant. Said manservant merely nodded in response, hurrying over to a stable hand to get his own horse, on whose saddle he quickly loaded up with the equipment, before he climbed on himself.

"Hey Merlin just ignore Princess over there he's just being his usually grumpy self." Gwaine said waving his hand in Arthur's direction dismissively. Arthur rolled his eyes from behind Gwaine, whilst the other knights grinned slightly at Gwaine's usually antics.

Turning his horse and casting one last glance over the assembled knights and his manservant Arthur nudged his horse into a brisk walk, whilst keeping one ear fixed on the sounds of five sets of hooves behind him, as the rest of the group made to follow their Prince.

MM

Almost two hours later and the party had travelled deep into the snow covered woods, whilst the sky over head had slowly begun to darken, as the sun make its way passed its zenith. The six riders entered a fairly flat clearing, where the snow lay almost undisturbed but for a few small animal foot prints.

"We'll dismount here and continue on foot." Arthur announced, pulling his horse up and halting at the edge of the clearing near the tree line. He and the knights dismounted easily, their cloaks causing the snow to fly up as they made contact with the ground. "Merlin, hurry up and sort the horses already!" Arthur shouted when said manservant remained seated on his horse. Grinning at Arthur's exasperated expression Merlin slid off of his own horse, making sure to plant his feet firmly on the ground so as to avoid slipping over.

Reaching out a hand in a silent request Leon took a hold of Arthur's horse's reins, leading the horse along with his own over to Merlin who was tying up his own horses reins, as Gwaine, Elyan and Percival dealt with their own horses, tying them onto trees nearby. Leon passed the reins of Arthur's horse over to Merlin who quickly fastened them to a tree as Leon did the same to his own.

Once the knights had finished they joined Arthur who was examining some of the animal's tracks around the edges of the clearing. "Here." Arthur said pointing, so that the others knew to what he was referring. "These tracks are very fresh." Elyan who had bent down to inspect the tracks himself choose to remain silent but nodded in agreement to Arthur's statement.

"Alright then." Arthur said straightening up, and looking at his fellow knights with an expression that said he was eager to get going.

Back with the horses Merlin had finished unpacking all of Arthur's hunting equipment, balancing the equipment in his arms he trotted up to the others, shivering slightly as a cool breeze blew though the clearing.

"Try and keep up /Mer/lin." Arthur said as he watched the warlock's approach, whilst the rest of the knights went to join their Prince in following the tracks.

MM

Arthur crept thought the trees his eyes constantly flicking between the ground and the forest ahead, his breath fogging in front of his face as he went. Leon and Elyan followed closely behind whilst Gwaine sort ambled along seeming to not be paying a whole lot attention to what is happening around him. Whereas Percival would occasionally look down at the tracks the prince was following, though mainly focused on the surroundings watching for any other signs of life.

A short ways behind the knights Merlin walked keeping his eyes fixed on the retreating forms of their backs. Merlin shifted his load as the heavy equipment started to dig uncomfortably into his arm.

The group continued on for a short while, uninterrupted as most animals had hidden away from the sudden cold snap of weather.

The sound of shuffling to the left of the group caught Percival's attention, his head twisting towards the sound, as he slowed his pace, his eyes scanning the frosted over bushes. Minuets passed with no other sounds occurring so Percival glance back to check on Merlin, who has gained a fair amount of ground whilst the knight had slowed his speed, he nodded once before he turned back to the rest of the group and continued after them his legs covering large distances of ground as he made an effort to get closer to his fellow knights.

"Damn it!" Arthur's voice carried on the faint breeze reaching the ears of the whole party.

"What's wrong now princess?" Gwaine called as Arthur, Leon and Elyan came to halt just outside of the tree line.

"The trail just disappears here." Arthur exclaimed pointing to the ground, an expression of disbelief and annoyance on his face, his eyes serving the surrounding area, mainly dominated by a large frozen over lake.

"Really? Well that was a big waste of time wasn't it?" Gwaine stated as he and Percival joined the other three in examining the ground.

"And you told me off for wasting time." Merlin muttered as he joined the knights as well, though the slightly pull of a smile at his lips showed he didn't mean anything by what he said.

Looking briefly up at the darkening sky Arthur said. "Let's take a break here then head back to the horses and we can set up camp afterwards." his suggestion was met with five nodding heads. "Merlin, get th-" Arthur started, but whatever he was going to asked was lost at almost roar of about ten bandits, as the charged out of the trees, quickly blocking off of any escape into the trees, and backing the group against the lake.

Arthur and the knights drew their swords and engaged with the attacking bandits. Merlin having no sword of this own, dropped all the stuff he was carry but for short throwing spear, which he quickly held up, both hands braced along the apart along the shaft of the weapon, as a sword wielding bandit charged at what he thought to be an almost defenceless servant.

The air was quickly filled with the sounds of battle as steel met steel. Staggering back from the bandits initial blow of the bandits sword on the hunting spear, Merlin felt the surface beneath this feet became a lot smoother, and he had to adjust his weight slightly so as to avoid falling over.

Merlin, using the few seconds it would take the bandits to attack again glanced down, only to find he was no longer standing on solid ground but the frozen surface of the lake.

Unfortunately by using those few seconds to assess his situation, the bandit had recovered from the impact of having his blow blocked and had swung his sword once again this time, using both hands to give his attack extra strength.

The bandit's sword met with the shaft of the spear once again, but this time the extra force behind the blow caused the wood to splinter with a resounding crack, which drew the attention of several of the knights who managed to spare the servant a quick, worried glance before they had to go back to dealing with the remaining bandits.

Merlin stumbled back even farther out onto the icy surface of the lake and managing to slip over in the process, the bandit eagerly following his progress. Digging one of the ends of the splinted spear into the rough surface of the ice Merlin levered himself up into a stand position, his eyes glued on the advancing figure of the bandit, who now had a sadistic grin plastered on this face as he came to a stop about two metres away from where Merlin still stood.

Merlin blinked in confusion at this move, but his expression quickly became one of horror as he watched the bandit lift his sword high above his hand, the tip pointed straight down at the surface of the ice, before he brought the sword down, with an almost deafening crack.

The sword pierced the ice deeply, sending cracks cob webbing out towards the centre of the lake where the ice was thinnest and towards Merlin, who was watching the cracks draw nearer and nearer to where he stood.

The bandit's grin widened as he pulled his sword out and jammed it back in to the ice causing the surface to splinter even more, before he sneered in Merlin's direction, and turned tail and ran back towards land.

MM

Back on land Arthur and the knights had finished disposing of the bandits, when Leon spotted the bandit previously attacking Merlin charging across the lakes surface towards them with his sword raise ready to attack.

"Arthur!" Leon called, running past his Prince and meeting the bandit's attack with his own more skillful one and easily managing to kill him without sustaining any damage to himself as he did so.

Arthur shot Leon a grateful grin, before turning his attention the rest of this knights and taking stock of their various injuries, which considering the number of bandit they had just had to fight off was not many. Percival had sustained a cut across this left leg, which although long was extremely shallow. Elyan had a large bruise on the right side of his face which had already started to turn a nasty looking grey. Gwaine had a scrap on this right arm from one of the bandit's swords which had just managed to glaze him. Leon had no injuries as far as Arthur could tell, though that didn't necessarily mean much as he himself knew for a fact that whilst he appeared unharmed as well if he were to lift his shirt and chain mail there would be a fairly dark bruise there from a bandit who after being disarmed had tried to head butt Arthur.

MM

Whilst Arthur was busy assessing his knights Merlin , had been desperately searching for a way past the steadily growing cracks along the icy surface of the lake, but to no avail, and he instead found himself backing away from the edge in an attempt to escape the fracturing ice.

"Merlin!" The shout startled Merlin out of his task of avoiding the ice cracks as his head whipped around to the source of the voice, only to see Arthur and the other knights all staring at him, as they hurried towards the edge of the lake. Unfortunately because of his momentary distraction, Merlin's innate clumsiness decided to make itself known, as he slipped over once again and landed hard of him back his breathe leaving his lungs in one quick rush on impact.

The ice around Merlin gave an ominous creak, before even more cracks danced across the surface away from where Merlin lay.

"Merlin, you need to move now!" Arthur's cry was muffled in Merlin's ears however as the ice finally gave in to the stress it had suffered in such a short space of time. It started near Merlin's feet, this once solid ice falling away into small chucks which easily sunk at the slightest amount of additional weight.

Merlin pulled his legs towards his chest away from the progressively growing hole, lake water spreading across the top of the ices and making the surface even more perilous. Scrambling upright Merlin looks around frantically, unsure as the best way to go about getting off of the lake without falling into it.

"Merlin. You have got to move!" Gwaine shouted, whilst gesturing for Merlin to come towards him.

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Elyan asked cautiously his eyes travelling across the crack damaged surface.

"It is no more dangerous then, him going any other way. But a least if he can get any closer we may be able to help him easier." Gwaine argued, whilst behind him Percival nodded along with his reasoning. Elyan met Gwaine's eyes understanding where he was coming from.

"You need to just go for it Merlin it's not going to get any easier." Leon called a small amount of worry creeping into his voice as he watched the youngest member of their group.

Merlin nodded resigned, though he knew the others were unlikely to see the movement. Glancing at Arthur one more time, Merlin the glued his eyes to the _floor if it could be called that_ before stepping forwards at first hesitantly, but then with more speed as he managed to successfully take a few steps.

On the shore the knights worry begin to dissipate as Merlin got closer to the edge of the lake however, Merlin's success was short lived as he took another step and the ice gave way.

"Merlin!" the collective shouts from the knights almost drowning out the cracking of the ice as Merlin fell into the ice depths.


	2. Chapter 2

N/A: Wow I did not expect the response I got from chapter 1 so thank you all very much :D

natcel - Thanks very much, sorry I couldn't post sooner, I had to move all of my stuff out of my university hall and drive it all back home fun times.

MM

As Merlin's foot sunk into the ice he fell forwards his body slamming into the edge of the broken ice, and his arms slapping against the surface, as he gasped from the shock of the ice cold water surrounded him, soaking into the fabric of his clothes. Merlin took large uneven breaths as he tried to find a purchase on the seemingly impossibly smooth surface of ice, whilst he kicked his quickly numbing legs in and attempt to keep afloat.

Taking deep breath to try and calm down and to try and adjust to the freezing temperature of the water surrounding him, though Merlin realised that, that may not be his main problem as, the numbness that had started in just his feet had begun to spread rapidly up his legs towards his torso which so slowly becoming more and more submerged as the seconds went by.

Distantly Merlin could hear Arthur and the knights calling out to him, but their voices were becoming muffled by the hazy of drowsiness which had started to tug at Merlin's consciousness.

His fingers had turned from a bright pink to a pale grey colour, whilst he tried frantically to find some sort of perch on the cold surface, but with no luck Merlin felt himself sliding slowly deeper and deeper into the lake.

MM

Back on the shore, the group of knights and Arthur looked on in shock and horror as Merlin disappeared into the lake.

Snapping back to himself Gwaine was the first to move from the spot, in which he had been previously been frozen in, as he took an almost tentative step forwards, something that practically no one had ever seen the confident Knight do, but he quickly followed this first step up with several more, an action which seemed to finally snap the others to attention.

"Merlin…" Gwaine said as he took a few more steps forwards, growing slightly more confident in his movements as he did so.

"Wh- What do we do?" Elyan managed to stutter out, as his eyes flicked back between Merlin and Gwaine.

"We have to help him, of course!" Gwaine shouted, whipping around to face the rest of the group. Percival put a hand to try and calm Gwaine down, as he spoke.

"We know that Gwaine. It's just how do we?" He trailed off, hoping someone had an idea to solve their predicament quickly.

Arthur straightened up, tearing his eyes away from his manservant, to address his knights.

"One of us will have to go out there." It was a simple solution really, the only problem being if the ice gave way under Merlin's slight weight there would be no chance of it holding any of the heavily muscled knights, especially with the all the armour they were wearing.

"Alright. Which of us weights the least amount?" Elyan asked, only to receive pointed looks from the rest of the group. "Me?" He paused glancing around the group, he had already known he was the shortest, not by much sure, but still the shortest. "Ok, help me get my chainmail off then."

Gwaine and Percival quickly stepped up to assist Elyan, whilst behind them Arthur had turned back to Merlin's thin form, which was slowly being swallowed up by the lake. Arthur's fists balled at his sides and he tried to squash the urge to running straight out on to the lake a pull Merlin back to the safety of land, knowing that likely as not he would just end up being another casualty for his knights to rescue, something that would waste valuable the time that Merlin was quickly running out of.

The clinking of chainmail hitting the ground drew Arthur from his thoughts, as the others managed to successfully free Elyan from its weight.

"Hurry up then!" Arthur couldn't keep the slight edge of desperation out of his voice as he spoke, and Leon looked on worriedly from besides his king.

Elyan gave a quick nod in Arthur's direction as he started forwards towards the lake, closely followed by Gwaine.

As Elyan took his first nervous step on to the ice, Arthur, Gwaine and even all let out a collective breath, which none of them even realised they had been holding.

Nodding to himself Elyan took another step forwards, relieved when the ice remained completely still underneath him, he even relaxed his muscles a little though he remained on guard just in case. Taking his eyes of his feet Elyan looked out towards Merlin, who appeared to be unaware of what was happening around him, as he tried in vain to keep above the surface of the lake.

"Hold on Merlin!" Gwaine's voice called out into the clearing, causing Elyan to stumble and almost slip over in shock at the sudden loud noise in the otherwise quiet clearing. Regaining this footing Elyan sped up in his approach of the manservant, knowing that his time was rapidly running out.

MM

The darkness that had at first just clouded the smallest edge of this vision from his impact with the ice, had begun creeping across his field of view, narrowing Merlin's world down dramatically. This along with his sluggish thoughts, from the numbing cold, served to make Merlin completely oblivious to anything happening on the shore. Distantly he heard a shout. _'Was that my name? Names are funny.'_ Merlin though blearily, as his left hand lost its grip and he slid farther down into the water almost covering his shoulders now, though it was difficult to know for certain as Merlin could feel almost nothing of the water which he knew was surrounding him.

MM

Elyan had made it most of the way across the ice without any problems, but as he began to draw closer to Merlin, and the ice which the bandit had initially cracked, he started to hear cracking as the weakened surface began to struggle to hold his weight. Slowing his pace back to the speed he had original employed, Elyan had crossed the first section of damaged ice, when it happened. Merlin's hands seemed to go lax, because he had run out of strength or, because he had forgotten the importance of keeping himself afloat above the surface, Elyan would never know, but what he did know was that he was out of time and had to move now, before he lost Merlin in the icy depths.

"MERLIN!" Elyan barely took any notice of the distressed cry, from the other knights still on the shore, as spirited across the remaining distance, his feet pounding hard against the icy surface, and his breath fogging in front of him as he went.

Upon reaching the hole in the ice though which Merlin just had just fallen Elyan crashed down on to his knees, his eyes searching the depths desperately for any sign of their youngest companion.

MM

Merlin blinked slowly, trying to clear his blurred vision but to no avail, as he let out a sigh of frustration, or at least he intended to sigh but the movement sparked a coughing fit in his frozen lungs, a harsh but weak sound, which jerked Merlin's body farther into the water.

Panting slightly to regain his breath Merlin rested his head on the damp ice, his eyes sliding closed briefly before the snapped back open just a few seconds later.

"Hu?" The confused sound left Merlin's lips as barely a whisper, before his eyes dropped closed again, and this time they did not reopen.


	3. Chapter 3

Hi guy's this chapter is a short one again, as I have been busy with Manchester comic con and watching Macbeth :) The next chapter will not be out for a week as I am going to Pierrefonds tomorrow! I have to get up at 4am though fun times.

Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter, and see you in a week :D

MM

Wobbling precariously on the damaged and fragile surface of the ice Elyan peered down into the dark depths, his eyes quickly landing on Merlin's slowly sinking form.

Wasting no more time the knight stood once again taking a few deep and steady breaths as he did so, to steel himself against the biting cold he was about to be subject to, reminding himself that he was doing this for Merlin, and that the cold he was to experience was nothing compared to what Merlin certainly suffered.

Then without farther delay Elyan closed his eyes and dived.

MM

Back on the shore rest of the knights stood frozen, not from the cold no but rather from the distressing events that they had just played witness too. Arthur clenched his fists hard enough that he could feel his nails digging into his palms even though the thick leather of his winter gloves, as his mouth drew down into a frown. Besides him Percival remained ever silent.

"Damn it." Gwaine cursed, quietly, his eyes locked on the hole though which, his two friends had disappeared. "I hate doing nothing!" He started towards the water's edge determined to rescue both of his friends regardless of the dangers involved in doing so, if only to pull Merlin free from the water.

"There's nothing you can do Gwaine." Leon said his voice slightly strained. "If you rush in now you'll only make things worse for both of them." Gwaine glared across at Leon as he finished but made no move towards the lake, and his friends.

"I know you don't like it Gwaine, but this is the best thing to do." Arthur added without looking at the knight.

MM

His hands broken the surface first quickly followed by the rest of him, enveloping Elyan's form, tempting him to gasp in shock from the cold, but he somehow manages to resist, clamping down tightly on his breath.

A few seconds passed, in which Elayn felt himself sinking, before he forced his eyes open. The temperature stung, as it tried to draw his body's heat away from him. Blink a few times to try and clear his vision Elyan frantically searched the depth for any sign of the younger manservant. Who he quickly managed to locate, sinking slowly down, limbs seemingly hanging in the surrounding darkness of the water.

Kicking his legs Elyan propelled himself downwards, with his arms out stretched ready to grab a hold of Merlin.

Elyan's fingers brushed the collar of Merlin's jacket though he hardy felt the fabric as his fingers were quickly becoming numb, but with one more kick he came close enough the grasp a handful of the Jacket, and tug the lighter man towards himself and consequently the surface of the lake.

MM

"I have to go after them." Gwaine said decisively, only a few seconds after Elyan disappeared from view. Whilst his hands leapt up to his collar so he could untie his cloak, however strong hands took a grip on his forearms, halting his movements, and drawing his attention. "This isn't the time Princess." He ground out harshly, upon identifying Arthur as the owner of the hands.

"You can't go after them." Arthur said simply, tightening his grip as Gwaine tried to shake him off.

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"I am your Prince Gwaine!" Arthur bit out, moving to stand in front of said knight. "And besides if you just go charging in there you'll only make things worse."

"We have to trust in Elyan." Percival spoke up, coming to stand alongside Arthur, and meeting Gwaine's eyes.

"Fine, but if they don't surface soon I am going in after them."

Arthur nodded in agreement, before releasing Gwaine and turning back to the lake, his body tensed, but his expression unusually troubled.

MM

Each passing second felt like ten in the heavy and oppressive cold, but Elyan pushed on. One hand clamped so tightly onto Merlin's jacket, it was starting to cramp, even as at the same time he started to lose all feeling.

Kicking frantically he focused on the sunlight, which struggled to illuminate the depths, rising quickly as adrenaline, gave him the needed strength and energy.

MM

Breaking the water's surface, felt incredible as oxygen rushed into Elyan's, lungs but at the same time it hurt as the wind nipped at his damp skin attempting to freeze the water clinging to his skin.

Before he had a chance to re-gain his breath Elyan dragged Merlin's unconscious form to the surface as well, though he did not waste anytime checking if he was breathing.

"Merlin! Elyan!" The other knights and Arthur shouted, the second they spotted their friends above the water's surface, rushing forwards to crowd at the shore line anxious to help, but also hesitant least they cause even more trouble.

Elyan make quick time hauling both himself and Merlin onto the surface of ice, before he lifted the much lighter man over his shoulder so that he could get back to the shore unhindered.

MM

Arriving at the shore everyone crowed in close, trying to provide assistance, before Arthur ordered Elyan to give him Merlin, to which the knight responded, gently lowering Merlin into Arthur's waiting arms, and unsettled expression crossing his face as Merlin hung limply in his princes grasp.

Upon taking a hold of his servant, Arthur's eyes locked on Merlin's unnaturally pale, even for the servant's given his usual skin tone, face. As well as taking notice of blue tinted lips. Lowering him to the ground Arthur placed one of his hands above Merlin's mouth and nose hoping against all odd that Merlin was still somehow breathing.

MM

Seconds dragged by as hours, whilst the party held a collective breath, before Arthur sighed, his shoulders slumping forwards as he felt the much too weak, but still present breath.

"Thanks the gods." Gwaine muttered an unusually serious note in his voice.

"Someone get me something to lay him on!" Arthur snapped, waiting as he heard a rustle of fabric, and then saw a Camelot cloak appear laid out on the ground next to the pair. Quickly transferring Merlin across so he was on top of the cloak rather than to frozen ground, his vision was suddenly invaded by another cloak, offered up by Percival to cover Merlin with.

"Sire, we need to get into shelter and build a fire." Leon, said ever the voice of reason.

"Of course. Percival bring the horses and our supplies, Gwaine go gather firewoo-"

"I am not leaving him." Gwaine cut Arthur off before he could finish issuing instructions.

"I'll collect firewood, and Gwaine can help you find shelter." Leon said halting Gwaine's argument. Arthur nodded his assent, before he bent down and gathered Merlin along with the two cloaks into his arms and pulled him close to his chest so as to block some of the wind and surrounding chill, and mentally worrying about the way Merlin's head flopped back uselessly against his arm.

"I saw a good place to shelter this way." Gwaine said, pointing off into the forest.

"Go." Was Arthur's short response, before Gwaine set off closely followed by Elyan who was now wrapped in this own cloak, along with Leon's.

Gwaine lead them though a dense patch of trees, which opened out into a small but heavily sheltered clearing, with trees encircling it in all directions. Stopping next to the tree line, Arthur gently lowered Merlin onto the ground, making sure the cloaks remained securely wrapped around the slighter manservant.

Elyan sat down nearby, pulling the cloaks closer to his body, as he shivered.

Arthur lent away from Merlin, and began untying his own cloak, which once free he held it out to Elyan, who looked a confused at the gesture.

"Sire?"

"Take it." Was all the explanation Arthur gave.

"Hold up Princess, shouldn't you be giving that to Merlin, no offence Elyan." Gwaine butted in as he followed the exchange.

"No Gwaine. What Merlin needs is body heat." Arthur responded sharply, as he shrugged out of his chainmail and began undoing the laces of his top. Gwaine's eyes widened slightly as he understood what Arthur was going to do.

Arthur dropped his shirt to the ground, as he bent down besides Merlin who hadn't moved during the period of conversation. Tugging the cloak out from under the slighter man's frame, and unfolding it so that Merlin was freed from the fabric Arthur lifted Merlin's shoulders so that he could remove the wet clothing which clung heavily to Merlin's body, and leached the little heat still remaining within.

Removing Merlin's jacket was fairly straight forwards even with Merlin himself being completely limp in Arthur's hands. Merlin's shirt and neckerchief however were harder, the shirt in particular as the fabric stuck to Merlin's skin and twisted around his shoulders as Arthur straightened Merlin's arms above his head.

A minute later and Arthur had finally stripped Merlin down to only his smallclothes, at which point Arthur pulled off his own trousers and lay down besides his manservant, fighting his bodies flinch reaction to contact with Merlin's near-frozen skin.

"Come on Merlin, I need you to get better." Arthur muttered to his servant, whilst holding him close and tightly.


	4. Chapter 4

I only just notice that the double * I have to separate sections of the story, don't appear on this website so I am now use - I hope it works.

I am amazed by the response I have been getting to his story so thanks to everyone who reviewed or favourited or followed :D

Guest - Thanks for the review. Yeah poor Merlin, and his suffering has not finished yet. No don't feel cold have a blanket.

In fact everyone have blankets :D

MM

Remaining still and continuing to hug Merlin's body was a hard task for Arthur as the servant's skin seem to radiate cold, which quickly started to bring numbness to Arthur's own limbs rather than warming Merlin up as was his intention. As such Arthur had to concentrate to keep his own body in contact with Merlin's as his natural urge was to retreat away from the source of the colder temperature.

Nearby Elyan loosened the cloak already wrapped around himself, shivering as he became exposed to the chill of icy wind. Freeing his arms from the confines of the cloak one at a time, Elyan set about removing his own wet clothes, twisting and pulling at the fabric as it tried stubbornly to remain in place.

Eventually however he did manage to free himself, dropping the water logged clothes with a dull thud, into a pile nearby. Task completed Elyan re-arranges the cloaks about his body, adding Arthur's one on top to well and truly block the cold from his body.

Sitting up Elyan's eyes fell on to Gwaine who stood as if frozen his arms hanging down by his sides, though in reality it was only shock, and worry that kept him in place.

MM

A rustle in the bushes, and a small flurry of falling snow signalled Leon's return, as he stamped though the thick snow, his arms loaded up high with various sizes of sticks to use as firewood.

Entering the clearing Leon dropped his load into a pile making sure that none of the logs rolled away with his foot, before he set about clearing away the snow in a patch of ground in which to build the fire. Once he had finished clearing the snow Leon started to pile sticks up to build the fire. His eyes flicked around the clearing as he worked passing over Arthur and Merlin's forms without much surprise. He knew the prince and the manservant would do anything for each other whether they would admit to it or not. Letting his eyes continue their wondering Leon spotted Gwaine standing still unresponsive.

"Gwaine?"

The addressed knight gave no outward sign that he had heard.

"Gwaine." Leon raised his voice and, turned to fully face the other knight. Who this time responded to his name by turning his head very slightly towards the source of the sound, but leaving his eyes on Merlin's cloak wrapped form. "Could you help me get the fire started?"

Gwaine's darted over to Leon, before shooting back to Merlin.

"The sooner we can build a fire, the sooner we can start to warm Merlin up." This statement finally seemed to drag Gwaine fully from his thoughts and back to reality.

The pair made quick work of setting the sticks out, and lighting the fire, which did a first struggle with the damp sticks, but once it was feed a few of the larger sticks the fire grow to a more merry size.

MM

Arthur watched as his knights interacted with each other, pulling together to help the man they all saw as a younger brother. Arthur brushed his hand gently though Merlin's damp hair clearing it from across his eyes and forehead, his worry growing as he studied Merlin's face, from the grey smudges under his eyes which blended disturbingly with the current pallor of his skin, down to his lips which were almost colourless but for a blue tint that only made the normally pale manservant look even paler.

MM

The sounds of Percival arriving with the horse and the rest of the party's equipment broke though the relative silence of the evening and echoed through the trees. A few minutes later the outline of the knight and horses was visible just outside of the clearing, as the light from there fire reflected off of chainmail and the buckles of the horse tack, whilst he secured the horses to prevent them wondering off during the night.

The finally the biggest knight joined them in the clearing, handing out blankets to their respective owners who set their bedding down next to Elyan so that they were practically touching so they could try and conserve as much heat as possible during the night. Percival continued until he reached Elyan to whom he laid the blanket down on top of so that he did not have to move from his warm cocoon. Percival then continued around the clearing towards Arthur and Merlin, holding both the Princes thick, high quality blanket and the servant's blanket which was clearly well loved, but in dire need of replacement.

Arthur's and Percival's eyes met, and the Prince nodded at the silent question, and so the knight lay the royal blanket down over the pair, and then he folded the servants blanket into a compact rectangle which with a little help from Arthur he placed under Merlin's head, try to make the younger man as comfortable as possible.

"We should try and get some sleep, as we'll need to leave as soon as the sun rises so we can get Merlin back to Gaius as soon as possible." Leon said, settling down into his blanket.

"Leon is correct. I'll keep a watch on Merlin, whilst the rest of you sleep." Arthur put in, though he did not look up at the knights as he spoke to them.

The group settled down, leaving only silence as the evening rapidly turned to night, and only a weak but cuttingly cold breeze stirring movement in the trees.

MM

Finally after what felt like hours to Arthur but in reality was probably just short of one hour Arthur felt Merlin twitch. It was a very small movement, that Arthur had almost missed and, in fact he hardly thought he had felt movement at all and that he was just becoming desperate as whilst Merlin was starting to warm, he continued to remain deathly still, his breath being the only outward sign of life and even that was difficult to spot.

Arthur's eyes snapped open from where they had closed as he had attempted to rest a little, as he knew his night was going to be sleepless. He held his breath, so as to make certain any movement was actually originating from Merlin and not just a result of his own movements, slight though they had been.

Seconds ticked by like minutes as Arthur's eyes remained trained and almost unblinking on his manservant. Until he felt it again. The fingers of Merlin's right hand curling in on themselves, and brushing lightly against Arthur's leg in the process.

"Merlin…" Arthur's voice was barely above a whisper, as if he felt that anything more would halt Merlin's progress.

"Merlin? Can you hear me?" His voice was both stronger and louder this time, as he desperately searched for anymore signs that Merlin was re-gaining consciousness.

Merlin's eyelids flickered, his eye lashes brushing gently along the top of his sharp cheekbones.

Arthur held his breath, his muscles tensing without his consent as he did so.

Merlin's eyes twitched again. Then suddenly a harsh cough fit ripped from the young servant's throat, causing his body to jerk, and it tried to fold in on itself but not having the energy to do so.

MM

As he felt Merlin's own body tense beneath his own, Arthur tightened his grip around Merlin's shoulders trying to hold him steady as his lungs attempted to rid themselves of the last vestiges of the lake into which he had fallen.

Once the coughing fit had abated Arthur made sure to lower Merlin back down, but his time supporting Merlin's head against his chest to provide some comfort, but also to make it easier for Arthur to help Merlin though anymore coughing fits, /not/ that he would ever admit that out loud, too /anyone/.

Merlin's next breaths sounded painful and much too weak, but they were quickly followed by a small and barely audible moan.

By now the rest of the knights had been roused and had gathered around, though they had remembered to leave some space around the pair.

"Come on mate you can do it." Gwaine muttered, though everyone heard him in the silence of the surrounds. There was a pause as everyone focused all their attentions on Merlin, who's eyes travelled around under his lids.

MM

Heaviness, a weight pressing down on his lungs.

That was the first thing Merlin registered, as consciousness began return to him, closely followed by cold. Complete and numbing, bone deep cold, which had driven away almost all of Merlin's sense of touch, but for the pressure on his lungs, and the distance awareness that someone was holding him.

Merlin felt his eyes twitch, and he tried to take a deep breath to dispel the heavy feeling, but it backfired, as his lungs tightened as a cough tore out of his throat followed in quick session by more, until Merlin began to believe he may never be able to breathe again for the pain and the raw feeling of the little air he managed to draw in.

As his throat and chest finally began to relax slightly Merlin became more conscious that someone was not only hold him, but that they were also moving him. He moaned weakly as the person moving him stilled, and that went he heard a voice, Gwaine's he thought, though he struggled to concentrate enough to decide for sure who it was that spoke.

Resigning himself to not knowing who it was that had spoken, and that maybe, just maybe it would be better to open his eyes and see for himself what was really going on. And so with great effort Merlin pulled his eye lashes apart.

Only to slam them shut again a split second later, as even the dim light of the fire was too much for his stressed body. Waiting until the lights stopped dancing across the insides of his lids, Merlin tried opening his eyes once more.

MM

The knights saw Merlin try, and then quickly fail to open his eyes and see. But the collective relief that Merlin had awoken was largely visible, as breathes were released and muscles relaxed.

A few more seconds passed, in the returned silence before Merlin's eyes cracked back open to reveal heavily dilated pupils.

"H..Hi." Merlin managed to force out his voice scratchy and quiet, his eyes sliding slowly across the group gathered around him and the person holding him who he had still not identified.

"Welcome back mate." Gwaine greeted his voice a lot lighter than it had been since the accident, a smile playing across his face. Whilst Percival reached across and clapped Merlin gently on his shoulder.

"Glad to see you've finally decided to stop being so lazy." Arthur's words startled Merlin, who tried to twist around to see his prince, but stopped part way as his muscles seized up and, he let out a groan.

"You'll need to take it easy Merlin, the cold will have made you stiff and weak." Leon said his voice level, though a small smile of relief graced his face.

"What..? I- I don't." Confusion fell across Merlin's face, as he stuttered over his half-sentence.

"You don't remember?" Elyan spoke up, he himself was pretty stiff, but he still had enough mobility and energy to step closer and reach a hand out to Merlin's forehead, as if expecting him to have a fever as the cause of his confusion. Withdrawing his hand, Elyan said. "Gaius will know what to do." The certainty in his voice, plain for all to hear.

Arthur stared down Merlin, who's eyes had landed on the floor, and were slowly drawing closed, whilst his breathes still wheezed out of his mouth. He knew that Merlin still had a long way to go before he was warmed back up, so Arthur hitched Merlin up his chest, a move which forced a weak cough from the servant's throat, but allowed Arthur to properly embrace Merlin to provide as much warmth as was possible.

"Go to sleep Merlin, you need your rest." Arthur said flattening Merlin's hair down as he did so.

The other knights took this as a queue to go back to their own blankets and back to sleep.

MM

Merlin fell asleep almost instantly, his energy spent. Arthur once again remained awake, with his eyes closed lightly, and so was not surprised when Merlin began shivering.

It started out as small infrequent tremors, but his shivering quickly grow into bone rattling shakes which, resulted in Merlin's teeth starting to chatter, and yet much to Arthur's shock the warlock did not awaken again.

Keeping Merlin in place as his body shook was a difficult, task. One that meant Arthur had to sacrifice his own comfort for the sake of allowing Merlin to continue to sleep, and try recover.

"You own me so much for this, you know that right." Arthur said his hardly voicing his words. "I'll have you muck out all the horses in the entire kingdom. That should be a sufficient punishment, for what you've make me do." He continued, smirking as his own words, which were becoming a way for Arthur to distract himself from the worry that still gripped him, despite Merlin's earlier awakening, but mostly to distract from the way some of his muscles cramped, from remaining stationary much too long. "You better get well soon. I'll double your chores, for a whole month if you continue to remain sick once we get back to Camelot." Arthur sighed, deciding that he better stop effectively talking to himself and conserve his remaining energy.


	5. Chapter 5

New chapter yay! Although it may seem like this story is almost at an end, there is actually quite a few more things too happen so still more chapters to go.

I really appreciate all your reviews, favourites and follows. Thanks guy's :D

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Ok I have been though and edited the grammar and spellings of these first 5 chapters, and finally(Hopefully) found a line breaker that doesn't get deleted when I save.

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A new day dawned faster than Arthur expected, sunlight barely breaking thought the thick of the trees, but casting long shadows across the clearing and over its occupants.

Elyan was the first of the knights to stir awake, his previous life style before his knighthood having required him to be active at a much earlier time them was needed now. Besides that his limbs had started to cramp up as they returned to a more normal temperature.

Arthur watched as he stretched out, cloaks and blanket pooling on the ground besides him, as he moved on to massaging his joints, to return their normal circulation.

Glancing down at Merlin who had remained deep asleep the entire night, and luckily his shivering had subsided a few hours previous. Arthur mentally noted that Merlin's lips whilst not there usual colour, were however no longer the almost dead looking grey-blue they had been the night before. However one thing that hadn't seemed to improve at all during the night was the laboured sounds of Merlin's breath, which hinted that whilst Merlin hadn't stopped breathing, his lungs and throat had suffered a fair amount of damage from the icy water.

The others knights started to awaken, stretching in a similar manner to Elyan before standing to either tidy away their blankets or to fix something for breakfast, especially after most of them hadn't eaten yesterday evening amongst all the chaos.

Shifting slightly he brought a hand to Merlin's cheek tapping in gently to try and rouse him, but also trying not to scare Merlin into doing anything which may injure him, and giving his confusion yesterday it was something he was fairly likely to do.

"Merlin." His first call gained a reaction unlike last time as Merlin's eyes blinked open slowly, very slowly, as if they weighed far too much. Merlin's eyes once again were huge black circles which easily captured the weak light, and were surrounded by the thinnest ring of his natural deep blue.

MM

"Hmm?" The questioning noise left Merlin's lips, as his eyes trailed slowly from the ground to his own body which was wrapped up tightly, in not only a Arthur's practically luxurious blanket, but several of the knights cloak, and finally someone else's body. Someone who Merlin quickly identified as Arthur. But what was the Prince doing /hugging/ his manservant? Most of all what was he doing hugging anyone, and voluntarily at that.

That thought quickly fled as Merlin's throat started burning, so that he had to cough to dispel the feeling, his shoulder shaking, and banging back on to Arthur's chest as he was left exhausted once more.

"Are you awake properly this time?" Arthur's voice was condescending, but a note of worry was still discernible in the words. Merlin blinked owlishly up at Arthur before answering, his voice scratchy.

"Think so…"

"In that case, why don't you get up then?"

Merlin nodded, before wriggling his hands mostly free of the cocoon, and finding the floor either side of Arthur's body, and pushing up.

Only to fall back down with an oomph only a couple of seconds later.

"Urg." Merlin muttered, his breath coming fast and short. "I think… Arthur?"

"Yes, _Mer_lin?"

"Why, um." Merlin squirmed a little before a faint blush spread high across his cheeks. "Why am I almost naked?"

"You only just noticed?" Arthur responded, not knowing whether to be worried or amused.

He quickly decided on worried after Merlin failed to respond. "Merlin?"

"Yes, your pratishnessh?" Merlin answered, his mind drifting away from the former topic of conversation, and his tongue slurring over the words a little.

Arthur looked worriedly at the top of Merlin's head which had slid farther down along with the rest of him. "Never mind, you just focus on staying awake alright."

"Mm, Ok."

MM

Across from the prince and his servant the knights had finished making breakfast as well as tidying away, and were now waiting on the earlier mentioned pair before they started eating.

Gwaine whilst keeping his distance, had worry written plainly across his face. Conversely Leon had managed to keep his face blank, even as he watched the interactions over the other side of the clearing from the corner of his eye.

Noticing his fellow knight's distraction, Percival stood and went to join Elyan who had redressed in his now dry, but stiff and cold clothes and had sat himself back down near the fire, cloaks draped over his shoulders to help him regain some warmth.

"Hey." Percival's simple greeting contained more than appeared on the surface.

"As soon as I warm up, I'll be fine." Elyan responded, pull the cloaks tighter around his body, to illustrate his point.

Percival nodded, his eyes scanning Elyan's form for confirmation of his words, which whilst still a little pale was looking much better than the day previous, before he looked out towards the young manservant who's own complexion revelled that of the colour of the snow around them.

"The best thing we can do for Merlin now is to get him back to Camelot." Elyan stated the same thing that he been decided earlier.

"Sire." Leon's voice cut across the silence that had fallen, and caused Arthur's head to snap up towards the knight. "Food is ready."

"Of course." Arthur replied. Tucking his arms under Merlin's armpits, shifting the boy off of his lap and then, gripping the cloaks and blanket tightly with his hands he stood taking Merlin with him.

MM

Merlin let his eyes wonder lazily around the clearing, not taking anything in. Stretching his fingers, Merlin felt them skim over his skin furrowing his brow Merlin spread his fingers and let them rest on the still chilled skin of his leg. _'That's weird. Maybe Arthur knows what's up._'

"Why, um." Merlin started speaking whilst, feeling an almost scorching heat rise in his previously chilled cheeks. "Why am I almost naked?"

"You only just noticed?"

Merlin heard Arthur's response but didn't really register that the prince was in fact addressing him, or that he was /sort/ of answering the question he himself had asked not a minute ago.

As the heat drained out of Merlin's face from his earlier but now forgotten embarrassment, he felt a renewed bout of cold, causing to almost retreat away from awareness, but Arthur's unknowingly, timely address of. "Merlin?" Stopped him from slipping all the way from reality, and prompted him to speak again.

"Yes, your pratishnessh?"

"Never mind, you just focus on staying awake alright." Merlin didn't hear any of the worry infused into Arthur's voice, but if he had it would have /warmed/ his heart. Knowing that this sounded like a good idea, Merlin nodded as he felt tiredness crashed over him.

"Mm, Ok."

Merlin's thoughts turned to studying the ground and finding the patterns that appeared in the snow, he was vaguely aware that the knights were talking, but he couldn't summon the energy to pay any amount of attention.

That was until Arthur slotted his arms under Merlin's armpit and hauled him unceremoniously up right.

"Wooh." The abrupt change in altitude made Merlin's head spin and his version blur away completely. He let his eyes slid closed in an attempt to stop the dizziness and before he knew what was happening he felt someone shove his shirt over his head, or at least they tried to but with Merlin's head hanging forward the fabric stretched over the back of his head and hung limply in front, with only a few tufts of black hair poking through the neck hole.

"Guy's, that's not how my shirt goes." Merlin said his eyes still shut but his head feeling much clearer.

"Sorry mate." Came Gwaine's voice, as the shirt was moved around more until it was finally pulled correctly over Merlin's head.

Merlin exhaled sharply, feeling his throat tighten as he clamped down on a cough, whilst his eyes cracked open.

MM

Arthur resisted the urge to berate Gwaine as the knight failed spectacularly to dress Merlin in his now dried shirt. He shifted Merlin's body higher in his arms, trying to get Merlin to stand on his feet rather than letting them drag on the ground.

As Gwaine tried to correct Merlin's shirt Arthur pulled the on blankets and cloaks with great difficulty so that they were wrapped tightly around Merlin's waist but unfortunately leaving his own back exposed to the harsh cold of winter.

Once Merlin's shirt was in place Arthur pulled him back against his chest, which resulted in Merlin's head flopping back onto his shoulder, and also allowed some warmth, though not a great deal, to gather between Arthur's chest and Merlin's back.

"How are you feeling?" Leon asked stepping around the fire and watching the preceding's with a little amusement.

"Alright." Merlin said, drawing a raised eye brow from Leon, and exasperation from both Gwaine and Arthur.

"_Mer_lin. It's obvious you're not _alright_." Arthur said plainly.

"You don't need to pretend for us Merlin." Gwaine added, his eyes showing his concern not only for Merlin's current state but at the fact he felt the need to try and hide his suffering.

Merlin looked away guiltily knowing that he had to hide most of his suffering not only to keep his secret but to keep his friends safe.

"We'll discuss, Merlin's unwillingness to seek help later, right now we need to eat and get going." Arthur said looking pointedly at Merlin as he spoke.

Percival handed out food to the other knights and gave Arthur both his and Merlin's portion.

MM

The group rode swiftly though the forest, horses kicking up snow, but now too fast as they had to avoid both the trees and be careful of the slippery ground. Merlin sat in front of Arthur, now fully dressed but still effectively cocooned in cloaks, and folded forwards on himself, as the movement from the horses below him, jolted his body.

Arthur was in the lead Gwaine close behind him, his eyes flicking over to the manservant every so often to make sure he wasn't getting any worse. Elyan was behind Gwaine, with Percival directly at his side checking up on his friend. And finally Leon rode at the back, Merlin's horse tired onto his saddle as the servant wasn't ridding it.

The sounds of the horse's hooves spread far though the forest, but luckily because of the extreme weather _most_ people had enough common sense to stay inside and as such the group was not in danger of being ambushed.

They made rapid progress through the forest, no one even thinking about stopping until they had reached Camelot's court yard.

MM

Before long the group was cresting a hill leading into one of the fields just outside of Camelot, and from which the castle was easily visible, and so once they had cleared the trees as one, and as if following some sort of silent command the group urged their horse's into a faster pace.

And as such the group as came clattering into the castle courtyard before they had even realised they'd arrived.

Guards and peasants looked on as their passed his manservant down to Gwaine, before he leapt off of his own horse, almost wrestling his manservant back, before the pair of them charged off into the castle, shouting their way through the crowd in as they went.

MM

At some point during the ride back Merlin felt himself falling back into the oblivion of unconsciousness, but with a monumental effort he managed to just cling to awareness.

But in the end he almost missed when they arrived in Camelot, only noticing went he felt himself being passed down from the horse in front of Arthur. The change of position as Gwaine took a hold of him incited a fresh coughing fit, which this time he failed to cut off before his lungs constricted and he started coughing, long draw out motions which halted and his inward inhalations, and quickly started black spots dancing across his vision.

"Just breath Merlin, we're almost at Gaius's" Gwaine said in a reassuring manner, whilst he felt Arthur strengthening his support, under his shoulders and his legs.

Merlin's eyes were opened into slits, and he watched as they arrived in the corridor outside Gaius's chambers, and then as Arthur burst into the physicians chambers, with a cry of.

"Gaius!"


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry about how long this took to write but, I have been to the Tempest 4 times, and been to Warwick castle between now and the last update.

Also I have been though all the chapters and corrected most of the grammar and spelling mistakes, so they should read a lot better now.

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Guest - Thanks for reading :)

Someone - Thanks very much :)

If I miss replying to you're review I'm very sorry, I get confused about who I have, and haven't responded to.

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The day before had been fairly slow for Gaius, after he had roused his ever troublesome ward just in time for him to go and attend his duties, he had only had to deal with three patients, two of which were only suffering from colds, whilst the final one had broken an arm after slipping over on a patch of ice earlier. And so Gaius had spent the majority of the day organising his herb collections and attempting, but mostly failing to sort through some of his many books to made it easier to locate the needed texts when the next magical threat appeared. And this morning, the small amount that had occurred so far had been even quieter, allowing Gaius time to rest and not worry for once, either about Merlin or any number of peasants, or perhaps even nobles.

So when the Prince bust in Merlin wrapped up and practically cradled in this arms, with Gwiane right on his heels. A cry of the physician's name on his lips, said physician struggled not to jump out of his skin, before dread landed heavily on his shoulders, as he took note of the state of his ward. From the pale greyness of his skin tone to the way he seemed almost boneless in Arthur's hold.

"Lay, him down." Gaius commanded, a note of panic lacing his voice before he fell into the detachment of physician mode.

MM

Arthur didn't hesitant to obey Gaius' order, even as a prince who didn't take being given orders lightly, he knew that when it comes to some things he has to trust other people's judgement.

Striding forwards deeper into the room, Arthur made sure to keep Merlin from getting bashed on one of the many obstacles that littered the chambers. Placing him down gently on the patient bed, making sure to keep all of Merlin's limbs from falling off the edge of the bed, Arthur took a few steps back giving Gaius room to work.

"What happened?" Gaius asked, though his tone of voice bordered on demanding, as he used his fingers to slide each of Merlin's eyes open one at a time, and examining his pupils which were still huge black holes swallowing up the natural blue of his eyes.

"We were attacked by bandits." Gwaine said, Arthur jumping in straight after he finished.

"One of them broke the ice on the lake, and Merlin. He fell in."

Arthur's shoulders slumped, his earlier worries crashing down on him.

Gaius nodded solemnly a hand going to Merlin's pale forehead, and meeting with the excepted cold clammy feeling of one who was suffering the effects of hypothermia.

"How are you feeling Merlin?" Gaius asked, noticing his wards eyes slowly following his movements.

"Cold." Merlin rasped, squirming inside his den of fabrics.

"I'm not surprised." Gaius replied gently. "But I need you to be more specific."

Merlin groaned, finally freeing his arms enough to try and sit up but, struggling as the movement quickly sapped him of his remaining energy, and leaving him even weaker then when he had first awoken.

"Throat hurts. And, and my chest." Merlin admitted reluctantly, Whilst Gwaine pressed down on Merlin's shoulder to keep him in bed.

Gaius hummed, and continued Merlin's now abandoned task of removing the fabrics, which with the help of Gwaine he quickly removed and then lifted his wards shirt revealing newly forming bruises from Merlin's earlier tumble.

"I'll put some salve on it then we can wrap you back up."

"Nuh." Merlin protested, his hands grasping weakly at his shirt, trying to restore it to its original position.

"Merlin." Arthur scolded approaching Merlin with the intent to get his shirt back out of the way.

"No." Merlin admonished, crossing his arms clumsily across his chest, and his eyes screwing up in protest.

"Merlin, this is no time to be childish."

"Sire. Hypothermia can often make a person very irritable and confused." Gaius laid a hand on Arthur's shoulder as he spoke. Arthur turned to the physician, a frown marring his features and betraying his confusion before he replied.

"But, I thought Merlin was starting to recover."

The physician sighed in response before shaking his head. "You managed to keep Merlin from getting any worse, and you even managed to warm him up a little. However because you were still in a fairly cold environment It will take a few days for Merlin to fully recover and get back to his usual self."

"I'm right here." Merlin's quiet words startled the pair, whereas Gwaine had remained focused on Merlin.

"Now, will you let me put some salve on your chest to help with the pain?" Gaius continued, his eye brow twitching upwards in a silent warning.

Merlin stared at his mentor, keeping his arms in place across his chest until Gaius raise his eyebrow even higher and Merlin crumbled under the scrutiny, unfolding his arms and letting Gaius get on with his work.

MM

Once Gaius had finished checking Merlin over and had fixed his clothes, gestured over towards Gwaine to collect the blanket that was folded up on the table nearby.

Gaius removed the cloaks from the bed, untangling his wards legs and feet carefully, before putting them in a pile on his work bench.

Gwaine passed the blanket over to the physician without looking, and Gaius tucked it in around Merlin's skinny form, making sure to cover him completely with the blanket.

"There you go my boy." Gaius brushed his hand back across Merlin's forehead this time as a gesture of comfort, rather than the emotionless task of a physician.

The clatter of the door behind them startled the occupants of the room, as Elyan, Percival and Leon traipsed into the room. Gaius immediately honed in on Elyan.

"What happened to you then Elyan?"

"He pulled Merlin from the lake." Leon stated, whilst Percival nodded along.

Gaius directed Elayn to sit down on the bench, before turning away so that he could collect a potion for the knight, to help with the final lingering cold.

Leon strode across the room pausing besides his prince and letting his hand fall in the princes shoulder, in quiet reassurance that the prince would never admit to needing.

Releasing the prince's shoulder Leon pulled up a chair setting it next to Arthur's,whilst Gwaine placed an extra blanket he had stolen off of Gaius's bed on top of Merlin.

MM

Arthur was almost oblivious to the goings on of the rest of the room as he sat his head in his hands and his eyes fixed on the edge of the bed, so that Merlin himself was just out of his line of sight. The prince's thoughts were miles away, yet they kept falling back to his manservant, and that he had failed once again to protect someone close to him when it had mattered most and as a consequence, Merlin could have died.

He barely registered a new blanket falling into his vision before a hand landed on his shoulder, which once he turned his head he identified as belonging to Leon. He allowed the very slightest upturn of the corner of his mouth to signal his gratitude, before the knight released him and sat down nearby.

MM

Gwaine straightened up, eyes briefly taking note of what was occurring in the room before turning about to locate the fire place and an appropriate amount of fire wood to get a warm fire started.

Though after he after setting the wood up Gwaine struggled to get it to catch, sparks falling uselessly on to the logs from the flint.

"Damn it." The knight cursed, his hands clenching around the stones, as he resisted the urge to throw them across the room.

"Here." Percival had noticed his friend's predicament, and took the flint out of Gwaines hands, sliding them together and finally getting alight to the wood.

MM

"Can I go to sleep now?" Merlin's question was a bit redundant as he was half way to unconsciousness once more, and because the rest of the company had assumed that Merlin would go to sleep on his own.

"That's alright my boy you just go to sleep." Gaius said carefully, before turned to the rest of the group. "Now if you'll all please leave."

Leon stood at Gaius's words, not wanting to face the physician's ire. The rest of the group however remained where they were, though they did look in the direction of the physician, who's eyebrow slowly climbed upwards.

This prompted Percival and also Elyan to stand also having down Gaius's potion and started feeling much better.

"Gwaine."

"But-"

"No buts you can visit again tomorrow."

Gwaine nodded reluctantly, glancing down at Merlin one last time before he followed the other 3 knights out of the room.

Once the door had closed behind the last knight Gaius stepped up to Merlin's bedside, feeling relieved that said warlock had found sleep easily.

"Sire." Arthur looked up as he was addressed. "Perhaps, it would be best if you went back to your room to sleep."

"I'm not going to leave him." Arthur said barely acknowledging the elder's presence.

"I don't think…" Gaius started, but stopped as he observed the prince's behaviour.

"This shouldn't have happened. I should have protected him better." His voice was quiet, but also riddled with guilt.

"It's not your fault. Merlin's stubborn, but also much to brave considering, that he doesn't always think about the consequences of his actions." Gaius paused to sigh as he thought about what all the crazy things his ward had done. "Besides Merlin will be completely healed in a few days, as it is lucky he hasn't turned a fever, so we don't have that to worry about."

"Of course." Arthur tried to hide his worry behind more callous words, though he failed in doing so.

"Now I have some deliveries to make, I assume you'll stay here with Merlin until I get back." It wasn't a question, but Arthur still nodded.

MM

Gaius had been gone for a little under 2 hours, and during that time Merlin had remained soundly asleep though his throat still sounded rough, and Arthur with his chin balanced on his palm and his elbow on his knee was starting to drift off, the almost sleepless night before finally catching up with him.

Merlin had remained almost completely still in his sleep, but his breathing had become much more ragged as time passed, and Arthur noted that he should ask Gaius about that once the physician returned.

Stretching Arthur took his eyes off of Merlin for a few seconds, looking around the room and taking time to work out the approximate time of day based on the amount of sunlight still filtering into the room.

A weak coughing or rather spluttering drew Arthur's attention back to his servant, who's completion had paled drastically and who's hands where alternatively pawing at the bed sheets and clenching the fabric.

"Merlin!" Arthur cried, practically jumping to his feet and sending his stool crashing down to the floor behind him. Said warlock managed to crack his eyes open the their blue colour having returned slightly as his pupils returned to a more normal size, but this improvement was of no concern, as those same eyes silently pleaded for Arthur's help.

"Merlin, what's wrong?" The prince asked no knowing what else to do, but Merlin remained silent, his coughing reduced to painful and extremely shallow gasps, as if whilst he could take air into his lungs it could not be used by his body.

Panic was quickly over taking all of Arthur's thoughts, but before he completely lost all coherency he managed to stubble to the chamber door, which he slammed open.

"Guards!" He didn't check if anyone had heard him, and returned to Merlin side, his hands hovering uselessly over Merlin's form.

"Shit." No knowing what else to do Arthur climbed on to the bed next to Merlin's head and gentle lifted it into his lap, smoothing his fingers over Merlin's cheeks in a reassuring manner, movement didn't help Merlin's breath, though at least it didn't make it any worse.

"Guards!" Arthur called again, his voice crack with worry over the syllable.

What could have only been seconds later, a guard came charging into the room having recognised the prince's voice.

"Si-"

"Get Gaius, and hurry." Arthur commanded, only looking away from Merlin for a split second, as the guard left as quickly as he had arrived.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for the support guy's it means a lot :D There will probably only be one more chapter after this.

MM

Guest(1) - Thanks.

Guest(2) - Thanks :)

Allpau1 - Yeah the poor dear.

Someone - I hope this chapter explains it for you.

MM

The time between the guard leaving and then returning with Gaius in tow felt like a millennia to Arthur as he waited, his Servant's head in his lap, and his thoughts frantic. Each attempt Merlin made at breathing in reminded Arthur that time was growing ever shorter, especially as Merlin seemed to start losing focus and as slipping away.

"Gaius! Help!" The prince didn't even try to hide the worry in his voice anymore, not caring that the guard still present could hear him. His eyes were wide as he stared at the physician.

"Let me." Gaius managed to keep his voice calm, but his hurried actions betrayed him. Leaning down over his ward, Gaius pressed his ear down to Merlin's chest, listening to him struggling and mostly failing to inhale. Physician withdrew quickly after a few seconds of listening.

"He's got fluid in his lungs."

"Fix him!" Arthur cried.

"We need to get him vertical, as the fluid isn't obstructing his lungs as much." Gaius commanded, not even pausing, before identifying the treatment.

Arthur nodded once as he shuffled backwards on the bed, before he hooked his arms under Merlin's arm pits and across his chest, not unlike how he had done back in the forest. This time however he was not doing it to wake the servant, but to save his life.

Merlin moved easily under Arthur's strength, his breathing did not however ease any once he was positioned vertically against the prince's chest. In fact the movement caused Merlin to briefly choke on the air, his throat sounding completely torn.

"It's not working Gaius!"

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The restriction of his breath woke Merlin slowly. His lungs felt like they were gradually filling with liquid, cutting his breath off centimetre by centimetre.

He tried to take a deep breath, to perhaps clear his lungs, and allow him to return back to sleep. But as the air entered his body, Merlin found himself spluttering as the air rushed back out of his lungs.

Merlin resigned himself to suffering though this almost coughing fit, but as after a few seconds it failed to abate, Merlin found himself grasping at the sheets below him, not having the strength to do much else and having no clue what he would do if he did.

"Merlin!"

Arthur's startled cry gave Merlin something to focus on. A focus that he used to cut through some of his own panic and almost ground himself back in the present, and thus managed to crack his eyes open a little.

Merlin tried to asked for help, but found that his voice was quite literally stuck in his throat.

'_Help_' Merlin's thoughts screamed whilst his voice was silenced.

"Merlin, what's wrong?" The worry in Arthur voice was mounting, just as quickly as his own panic was rising.

Merlin could feel his body starting to fail, falling towards unconsciousness. Forcing him to take small and frantic breaths to try and keep aware. His eyes were glued on his prince, who was hovering uselessly above him, and who then seemed to finally make a choice, running to the chamber entrance.

"Guards!" Arthur's voice told him exactly what was occurring, before the prince returned, this time with his hands out frozen in the air.

Merlin blinked heavily, trying to convince Arthur that he should do something. Anything to help, as Merlin wasn't entirely sure whether he would manage to hold on long enough for the guards to retrieve Gaius.

"Shit." Arthur swearing shocked Merlin as it was something he rarely heard the prince do. Then the prince did something else out of character, and climbed onto the bed behind Merlin, letting his hands rest gently on Merlin's cheeks. If Merlin wasn't fighting a losing battle, he would have had a massive grin on his face at the care the prince was showing.

"Guards!" His second shout was a lot quieter than his first and, Merlin felt both his heart and chest clenched as the Prince's voice cracked.

"Si-" One of the castle guards finally arrived, though Merlin paid him little mind, having not the energy to contrite on both Arthur and himself.

"Get Gaius, and hurry."

Praying silently that the guard, would for once be able to carry out his job correctly, Merlin felt his hands stop pawing the bed as his body started shut down.

By the time Gaius arrived Merlin was really pressed to keep conscious and his hearing was fading behind the roaring of blood he could hear in his ears.

He felt rather that saw Gaius press himself down on his chest as, a few words were exchanged above him.

Before the next thing Merlin was really awake of was the world tilting as he was lifted into a sitting position. The sudden movement jarred something inside Merlin's chest and he found himself practically hacking his lungs up.

He felt the vibrations of Arthur's chest behind him as the prince spoke, though he had no clue what was said, he then felt a hand on him forehead, tilting it backwards which in turn caused his jaw to fall partly open. This new development opened Merlin's throat better and actually allowed him to inhale a much deeper breath without in causing him that much pain.

As he continued to breathe easier, Merlin started to become aware of his surrounding once again, and found that it was Gaius's hand holding head.

"Welcome back Merlin." Merlin heard Gaius speaking this time, and saw his mentor give him a small smile.

MM

Arthur held Merlin close as the physician grimaced, before pushing Merlin's head back with a hand against his forehand. Once he stopped moving Merlin's head, Arthur was amazed and incredibly relieved when Merlin's next few breathes were not nearly as strained and actually sounded closer to normal.

The prince remained silent savouring each precious inhalation, whilst Merlin's eyes started to un-cloud, and Gaius spoke.

"Welcome back Merlin."

"What do we need to do now?" Arthur asked, as whilst he didn't mind holding Merlin up if it was helping the servant, he didn't really want for anyone else to catch him showing affection.

"Once his breathing has returned to a more natural state, we'll need to make such he doesn't lie down flat for the next day so that his body can clear his lungs naturally, and so this doesn't happen again." Gaius said in his I am a physician and you must do as I say voice.

Arthur nodded, turning back to Merlin who was starting to regain his sense, and whose eyes were becoming clearer by the second.

"Look what you've got me doing here Merlin. A prince looking after a servant, what would people say." The servant's mouth twitched upwards, whilst his throat worked, but he seemed to change his mind on the speaking front.

"You shouldn't try talking. Your throat will need time to recover properly." Gaius interrupted before Merlin changed his mind. "In fact, you should drink…" He trailed off searching thought his potions, glass clinking together softly. "This." He finished rather triumphantly, bringing said bottle over to the other the rooms other occupants. He uncorked the bottle and passed it over to Arthur, as he knew Merlin was in no state to try and lift anything, even something small.

Nodding Arthur pressed the lip of the bottle to Merlin's mouth pouring the contents into the servants mouth, and smirking slightly as said servant winced at the taste, almost choking the liquid back up.

"You should try and go back to sleep." Gaius said taking the empty bottle back, and receiving a a small nod in return.

MM

Merlin had drifted back off, a while ago and was sleeping a lot more peacefully then he had done earlier, though Arthur still held him upright arms almost looped in place.

"You let go of Merlin now sire and I'll use pillows to keep him from falling over."

"That's alright Gaius. The clumsy idiot would probably manage to find a way to fall over if I wasn't here to stop him." Arthur replied, and very small note of affection in his voice.

"If you're sure sire?" Gaius questioned.

"Yes."

"In that case you, should try and get some rest yourself it's been a trying day." He tried to suggest without it seeming like an order, now that the emergency had passed.

MM

Arthur had initially attempted to forgo the whole _sleeping_ thing, in favour of continuing to monitor Merlin's condition. Whilst he trusted Gaius that Merlin would recover he had also missed the water in his wards lungs which had cause the earlier scare, and thus Arthur had a lot of trepidation about going to sleep.

Soon enough however, he felt his eye lids grow heavy, as the candles burned low, and he slipped into a much needed and restful sleep.

Went Gaius arrived back at his chambers he found the prince slumped with his back against the wall one leg falling off of the side of the bed and one arms wrapped lightly round Merlin's chest, whilst said warlock was breathing deeply his mouth hanging partially open, head back on Arthur's shoulder.

Gaius smiled, shaking his head, before he pulled that blankets back over the pair, and took himself to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

So last chapter :( It's been fun though and I hope you enjoy this last one as much as the others :)

MM

Someone - That's fine :) Thanks, and no problem :)

MM

Light from the window spilled into the room, falling across the faces of the two occupants of the small single bed. The blond haired one groaned, mouth twisting before his eyes opened, blinking rapidly against the brightness. He lifted him head surveying the room as he remembered why it was that he was in the physician's chambers rather than his own room, and what the weight on his chest was, though he really should have been able to guess as he found himself in the same situation more often than he would like.

Arthur pushed himself upwards gently, so as not disturb his manservant who appeared to be still deep asleep. His joints protested the movement after hours of them being kept stationary under Merlin's weight.

The prince turned his head towards the small and only window in the room, trying to gauge the time of day. Determining that it was in fact still morning. Arthur turned his attention back to Merlin, taking in the fact with relief, that he had returned to a more normal, at least for him complexion.

"Merlin, time to get up." For once the prince's first attempt at rousing the servant was successful, as Merlin moaned, before opening both eyes.

"Arthur." Merlin's voice was rough, but he was breathing easily. "Were you here all night?"

Arthur didn't respond to the question, instead he squirmed a little embarrassed about his display of concern for the servant.

"Were you worried?" Merlin continued, managing to push himself up and away from Arthur so he was sitting independently.

"Of course not why would I be worried about you?" Arthur tried to dismiss Merlin's comment.

"Right, because someone who's not worried would defiantly stay with me the whole time, and-" Merlin broke off flushing red across his cheekbones as he finally recalled events of the day before, that he and Arthur both been almost naked and that Arthur had held on to him the whole night long. "I… Umm Arthur. About back in the forest um…" He tripped over his words, as his ears joined his cheeks in heating up.

Arthur seized the opportunity to turn the tables back on Merlin and increase his embarrassment. "Oh, what about it _Mer_lin?"

Said servant glared over his shoulder in response, his face remaining heated. "You utter prat."

"That's not a very nice way to repay me now is it." Arthur said meaningfully straightening up and crossing his arms in mock annoyance.

"But. Arthur." Merlin almost pouted, still recovering from his hypothermia and as such being unable to think up a witting retort.

"Let's see, you can repay me by mucking out all the stables and polishing all my swords…" Arthur ignored Merlin's feeble protest, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Hey! I'm still not recovered yet!" Merlin jumped up, only for his body to prove him right as he listed to the right, and only Arthur's quick reactions stopped him from meeting the floor.

"Sit down before you fall down idiot." Arthur said trying to get Merlin to stand so he could then sit back on the bed.

"Thank you, Arthur." Merlin said taking on a serious tone, whilst he freed one of the blankets already on the bed and pulled it around his shoulders, almost burrowing into the fabric.

Arthur watched his servant gather the blanket and put it around himself in an almost childlike fashion. His actions reminded Arthur that Merlin was hardly out of childhood, something the prince sometimes forgot. The prince the stood up, stretching his arms out above his head to alleviate some of the stiffness.

"Get some rest Merlin."

Merlin nodded once happily obliging and laying back down of the bed, pulling the blanket tighter about his shoulders.

Arthur continued stretching for a minute or so more before taking the chair next to the bed, and laying a second blanket which had somehow made its way onto the floor on top of Merlin, to which Merlin cracked an eye open with which to watch the prince.

"Arthur?"

"Yes Merlin?" Arthur sighed as he spoke.

"Don't you have princely stuff to do?"

"I do, but someone's got to make sure you don't do any more damage to yourself haven't they." The prince spoke as if it was completely obvious what he was doing and why. Merlin suppressed a grin at Arthur's words, his eyes crinkling at the edges. The servant closed his eyes again, lets his breathe even out as he tried to drift off.

MM

When Gaius returned he nodded to Arthur who was still sat at Merlin's bedside, before unloading his bag onto the table and coming to join the prince next to his ward.

"I presume he woke up?" The physician asked, inspecting his wards face, or at least the small amount that was visible from under the blanket, as well as listening to the sounds of his breathing. Gaius hummed to himself before turning to Arthur.

"I think it best you return to your duties before your father gets too suspicious."

Arthur nodded glumly, as he stood and made to exit the room, and saying in his most princely voice.

"You'll inform me of anything that occurs of course."

"Of course, sire." Gaius replied, a small smile playing onto his face as he did so.

Once the door had closed behind Arthur Gaius took the previously occupied seat, lowering himself gently to alleviate his old bones. He watched Merlin move slightly with each breath, enjoying the feeling of relief, now that he was no longer in any danger. Gaius sighed to himself releasing a breath and letting go of the tension in his body.

"Oh my boy, whatever am I going to do with you."

MM

Merlin felt completely warm then next time he awoke. He let himself revel in the feeling, his eyes remaining closed, as he tried to keep his breath even so as not to be disturbed. He listened to the soft shuffling steps of his mentor, as he moved around the room.

He was just on the edge of slipping back into s peacefully sleep when he heard the foot step of multiple people headed towards the physician's chambers. The door creaked open only seconds later, and Merlin briefly debated continuing to fake sleep before the owners of the footsteps were identified by Gaius.

"Ah Gwaine, and Elyan. I take it you're here to see Merlin." It wasn't a question and Merlin had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

"Of course!" Gwaine replied unnecessarily loudly. At which point Merlin decided, to make his presence known.

"You know if I wasn't awake already…" Merlin sat up as he stood, rubbing at his eyes to clear them.

"Merlin, mate how are you feeling?" Gwaine said completely ignoring Merlin's implication, as he sauntered over to the bed.

"Much warmer." Merlin said with a grin. Elyan started to approach the bed as well but was waylaid by Gaius, who insisted he be checked out for any lasting damage from the cold.

A serious expression crossed Gwaine face as he sat in the chair.

"I heard you almost stopped breathing last night."

Merlin blinked, a nervous expression on his face, whilst a small amount of pink once again coloured his cheeks.

"I- I guess so." Merlin stuttered out avoiding and eye contact, his hands twisting the blanket.

Elyan had been cleared by Gaius and quickly escaped across to the other side of the room before the physician could change his mind. The knight settled down, his eyes on the clearly uncomfortable servant.

"Merlin, you don't need to spare us the details." Elyan said gently.

"Gaius said I had some fluid still in my lungs and once I was laid down it stopped any air getting into my lungs." Merlin spoke flatly trying to distance himself from the words. Both of the knights sucked in a sharp breath as Merlin spoke.

"Damn mate." Gwaine clapped Merlin on the shoulder as he spoke, also as a way to reassure himself that the servant was still there, but also to provide some comfort to the servant. Whilst Elyan exhaled loudly.

"I'm fine though." Merlin said perking up, and offering the knights a small smile, which was returned by Elyan. "And anyway shouldn't you two be out training?" Merlin raised an eyebrow in an imitation of Gaius as he continued.

"Arthur let me off until Gaius cleared me as completely recovered." Elyan stated, glancing up at said physician who had retreated to the far of corner of the room to give the trio some privacy. Merlin then turned expectantly towards Gwaine.

"Ah princess won't mind too much." The knight said dismissively, gesturing vaguely with one hand.

"Right." Merlin said sceptically, shrugging off the blankets.

"I'll deal with him, checking on you is more important right now." Gwaine continued, giving Merlin a grin, which the servant returned, his eyes lighting up.

"Well, we better leave you to rest." Elyan said after a few minutes of silence had passed. The knight straightened up, pausing to wait for Gwaine, but after see that his fellow Knight had no intention of moving. "Gwaine?"

"I'm coming I'm coming." The long haired knight finally stood as well, giving Merlin a last smile before the pair exited the room.

MM

The next day dawned, and with it for once Merlin awoke, feeling refreshed after having a full night's sleep and then some. Yawning loudly Merlin stretch his arms out, before sitting up on the patients bed. Across the room Gaius snored softly, having yet to awaken. Merlin climbed out of bed, finding his legs steady once more, before he hurried quietly up to his room to get a fresh set of clothes.

On his return to the main chamber Merlin, noticed that Gaius had stated to stir. So the warlock set about gathering some food for their breakfasts.

Once Gaius had awakened, he was surprised to see his ward up and about, as well as breakfast laid out already. The physician quickly got up, gesturing for Merlin to take a seat at the table.

"How are you feeling?" The physician in Gaius took over as he sat next to Merlin, putting a hand to his forehead to check his temperature, Gaius nodded after a few seconds satisfied that Merlin was now over his hypothermia. "Remember to take it easy today, alright Merlin?"

"Yes, Gaius." Was Merlin's quick response, though they both knew his idea of _easy_ was not the same as the physician's.

MM

Merlin cracked the prince's door open, taking time to check that Arthur was actually still asleep, before he entered the room. Putting the tray of food down almost silently, the servant turned towards his master and allowed a mischievous grin to fall into place, before he stalked over to the prince's bed, fully intending to surprise the occupant. Merlin inhaled deeply, ignoring the slight tickle at the back of his throat before calling out as loud as he possibly could.

"Boo!"

Arthur's warrior reflex went into over drive causing him to sit bolt upright, his eyes wide, his legs pulling up towards his body ready to leap up, whilst his right hand reaching out for a sword that was currently nowhere near him. The prince's breathing was quick, but strong as he searched the room before he noticed Merlin who was trying to stifle a laugh, but who hastily backed up as the prince's eyes landed on him.

"Morning." The servant said nonchalantly, or at least tried to. Arthur scowled in response, yearning to throw something at the servant but being fully aware that Merlin was not quite at full health yet.

"Merlin."

"Yes, Arthur?" The servant took another two steps back, fully intending to move to the other side of the room to sort the prince's clothes for the day, as well as to be out of the way of the prince.

"What exactly was that?"

"What was what?" Merlin said freezing, under the prince's glare. Arthur raised one eyebrow at the servant.

"Merlin, if you insist on continuing with this idiocy I think the stocks could do with the company." His tone was completely serious, differing from the usual lightness that now accompanied the threat of the stocks.

"Ah… You wouldn't send a sick servant to the stocks now would you, Arthur?" Merlin said hesitantly.

The prince didn't need to say anything as his expression gave way the seriousness of his threat. Merlin's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before, he forced himself to relax and speak again.

"If this is how you react when I wake you on time, then I won't do it again." Merlin finally broke eye contact, as he retreated to the wardrobe. Arthur blinked turning to the still covered window, but noting the absence of light leaking in around the edges of the fabric. Arthur opened his mouth to retort but found himself lost for words.

The prince remained where he was listening to the sound of Merlin rifling through his clothes, before he snapped out of his daze, and focused in the food laid out for him.

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Once Arthur had finished eating and Merlin had selected clothes for the day as well as cleared away the dirty ones from the previous days, the Prince leaned back in his chair, bracing his hands behind his neck to support his head, as he sighed contently. Glancing out of the now uncovered window into the slowly lightening courtyard Arthur took a moment to contemplate the unusual events of the morning.

"You, know if this is how you behave after being injured, then, you'll have to do it more often." He said casually, and giving no reaction as Merlin promptly dropped the helmet he was carrying was a resounding crash.

"I…"

Arthur turned his head towards Merlin at the weak mutter, seeing his servant frozen in shock.

"Oh relax will you. I was just joking."

"That wasn't a very nice joke you prat." Merlin crossed his arms a frown adoring his features. Arthur exhaled a breath.

"Oh lighten up you clotpole."

Merlin's mouth quirked upwards, whilst Arthur smirked back at him, before he replied.

"My word, prat."

_Fin_

MM

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